As most of the civilized world condemns Russia’s homophobic laws, Putin’s corrupt and bigoted regime is finding itself supported by strange bedfellows — this country’s religious right. The latest of these groups to rush to the defense of the indefensible is the World Congress of Families (WCF), which announced in a press conference on Wednesday that they will be holding their 2014 summit in Moscow this coming September.

One of the most outspoken supporters of Russia’s oppressive new law is Janice Shaw Crouse, a spokeswoman for Concerned Women for America who said that WCF is “far more important than the Olympics.”

“The fact that the people who are our allies in Russia have been so successful in having an impact on the culture there, so successful in having an impact on the government officials, in bringing their concerns to the floor is, I think, very significant and is important for us,” Crouse said. “And I hope the United States will learn some lessons from Russia.”

She and other groups who have said that they will be attending the summit seem to be more concerned with limiting the free speech of gays and lesbians than they are in the religious suppression that is still ongoing in Russia and other states of the former Soviet Union. As they praise their “allies,” those same “allies” are oppressing other Christian groups within their borders.

On Thursday, Worthy Christian News reported that Russian Ministries, an evangelical mission group, had issued a statement saying, “Even as demonstrations increase, protesters’ hold on religion and civil liberties appears to be slipping in the North Caucasus and Central Asia.”

“The situation in Russia has been building over the last several years, and is as much about religious liberty as it is about political freedom,” the statement continued.

None of this seems to concern groups such as WCF and CWF as long as Russian authorities continue to go after those evil homosexuals who they just know are out to recruit all of our children to their “depraved” lifestyle.

As these “Christians” gathered to praise Russia for its wisdom in suppressing homosexuality Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak reminded athletes and attendees at the games in Sochi that they must refrain from speaking out in favor of gay rights because this type of speech is banned by both the Olympic Charter and Russian law.

He then went on to claim that there is no sexual discrimination in his country and that gays are free to speak to adults about their lifestyle — but not to children — once more implying that homosexuals are child molesters.

About Bob Cull

I'm retired and live in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate NY. I have strong opinions and my political bent has not changed since I was in high school. Most of my family thinks that I need to find a "real" hobby to fill my time in retirement, but I am content to share my opinions with others and exercise my "right" as a cranky old retired dude to express my views--which are based on many years of real world experience.

Aiban (Abner) Bhattacharya

I have never been to Russia, but the Russian men are bashing adult gays to stop the gays from homolesting 15 year old boys. The Russian men pretended to be 15 year old boys on Internet so that they could bash these gays.Those gays were looking for 15 year old boys to homolest but instead got bashed by men pretending to be 15 year old boys.

Yes, they should report this to cops and let the cops arrest the gays but I have no sympathy for these gays who get bashed. If a gay is going to look for 15 year old boys on Internet to meet and abuse-if instead they get bashed by men who pretended to be the 15 year old they had hoped to meet, then no sympathy for the gay. The Russian men who are bashing gays are doing this because they won’t tolerate gays going after teenage boys. yes, while vigilanteism must still be punished by law as you have to do it legally with cops arresting the gays who abuse teenage boys and then the legal system punishing the gays after they’ve been hopefully convicted, what is happening here is vigilanteism.

https://www.facebook.com/skip.moreland.5 Skip Moreland

The only thing I could find were several stories that had anti-gay men trolling on the internet. They did this to beat the crap out of the young gay men. I found nothing about gays doing anything. I think that you have the story all wrong. It is about the abuse of gays that is the story, esp the young who are tricked by anti-gay men posing as gay to meet and beat these young men up. And these men who are beating the gays are not being persecuted nor do the police even try to catch them.
But I am not surprised that an anti-gay person would try to turn it around and blame gays. It is what the bigots always do.

Aiban (Abner) Bhattacharya

Skip, you again wasted your time replying to my posts which you think is useless. Skip, I think you know what I say is truth though you deny it or Skip is on drugs. Russians are right having laws against gay/lesbian propaganda. Gay/lesbian conduct is bad for health and must be seen the same way as smoking. They must abolish sex changes-a surgical mutilation. Russia was Communist until 1989. As I haven’t been to Russia, I don’t know how religious Russians have become. But some of the Russians who support the laws against gay/lesbian and transsexual propaganda are atheists, so there are atheists who are against the gay/lesbian agenda because gay/lesbian conduct is bad for health just as smoking is.

Also with gay bashings which are happening in Russia, media version can’t be trusted. Though what the Russian men did was assault and battery, the circumstances possibly call for less punishment. The media gave 1/2 truths by saying the Russian men bashed gays and put the images on Internet, but here’s what most media omitted though some have now raised it. The Russian men who were bashing gays had pretended to be 15 year old boys on Internet by going on gay websites. Gays looking for teenage boys on Internet replied and set up places to meet them, but instead the gays got bashed by men pretending to be 15 year old boys.

But these gays who were bashed did commit a crime by looking for teenage boys on Internet, so I have no sympathy for the gays bashed here. Those gay bashing victims deserve no sympathy because there is something wrong with an adult looking for teenagers. The gay bashers put the images on Internet after they bashed the gays with slogan ‘occupy pedophilia’ because they aren’t going to tolerate gays harassing teenage boys.

https://www.facebook.com/skip.moreland.5 Skip Moreland

Pure BS on your part and on Putin’s. I didn’t look at your name, should have. The gay basher is back. Please take your hate somewhere else. There are plenty of forums that celebrate your hate.

https://www.facebook.com/skip.moreland.5 Skip Moreland

The irony of these so called christians supporting an old KGB man who suppressed religion in the old soviet union and is still no friend to religion.
Conservatives like strong authoritarian leaders and they need to hate and fear someone. Someone has to be a scapegoat for them to take their anger out on. If it wasn’t gays it would be someone else. Of course if one complains of the hate by these ‘christians’, one is accused of being intolerant and hateful.
I would love to see them live in russia for awhile and enjoy the ‘freedom’ from a strong leader like Putin. And then tell us how wonderful it is.

Brigita Petrutis

The lady thinks we can learn some lessons from Russia. We already did, and because the Russians did too, Communism fell. The only reason Putin and his band of thugs are in charge is because they are the only thing Russians know, with some semblance to governance. Democracy? Pffft. Capitalism? The Black Market is capitalism in its purest form. Who needs democracy when corruption is the only way? It’s gonna take some more time, over there. As for the boot-lickers over here, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Paul Levinson

As this article shows, the quickest way to get open-minded, thinking, caring people to ignore your Cause-Centered Group is to put the words Family, America, Concerned, Women, Men, and several others into the group’s title. If the Tea Party and Conservative Haters have accomplished anything, they’ve made the use of these words poisonous and loaded because of the ways their groups assault the positive implications of these titles by misusing them semantically. “Family,” for example, DOES NOT ONLY MEAN 1 Man, 1 Woman, 1 (or more) dogs, 1 (or more, natural, adopted, able, disabled, challenged or not) Children. They will NEVER succeed at coopting these words entirely, because people of fair and caring minds will NOT allow them to steal the words that suggest “partnering for the greater good…” from common usage. The Baggers and their Hate-Minded Ilk have succeeded only in making it too easy for those of us who don’t misuse words to laugh at their attempts to limit the possible interpretations of words by linking them to narrow, close-minded, and hateful ideas like homophobia, the Republican Platform or groups with Racist and Sexist agendas.

Raji the Green Witch

You know Christianity, the organization, not the following of the Religious philosophy first presented by Jesus of Nazareth, seems totally Hellbent on portraying itself as a bunch of bigots, thieves, perverts, child molesters, swindlers, Frauds, Hypocrites, murderers, gangsters and all-around haters and neer-do-wells. I am beginning to feel safe in condemning the ENTIRE church because there doesn’t seem to be anywhere near enough resistance against this growing tendency by the worst of the worse of the Church. The silence of those who make claim to NOT be like that is giving assent to the bad ones. And right now, when someone tells me that they are a practicing Christina, I feel more fear of them than I would if they told me that they were a member of the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club. There has been more death and destruction against the world committed in the name of Jesus and the Church than EVERY other group combined, since the beginning of the Dark Ages. The more of this Hate that I see from the church to more inclined I am to support the Atheists in their desire to have ALL tax exempt status taken away from the churches. Why are MY taxes going to support Religious bigotry? If THEY don’t WANT secular society butting into their business then THEY need to butt OUT of secular business. And that DOES include the subject of Government sanctioned marriage, as well as science education in the PUBLIC schools, and abortion as performed in non-religious hospital/clinic settings. It THEY wish to influence the laws then they need to PAY for that privilege and pay taxes just like everyone else who has a voice in our government.

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